I suspect that the delicious bookmark plug-in for Firefox 3 is not keeping me logged for two weeks.

Not only that, but whenever I'm required to log-in to bookmark a page, the plug-in does not continue on to actually creating the bookmark.

This morning I was forced to log in.  I believe the loss of information is coinciding with Firefox updates.  Anyone else have this experience?

Home PC:
2008.11.15, 9:15 AM

Work PC:

Autotext lines in Word (using 2003 here)

Sorry if this is pretty trivial for the true power users of Word...

I don't know if Word 2007 works this way or not, but I've discovered a couple additional characters in Word that auto-correct to divider lines. (Other than 'equals', 'minus', and 'underscore'). The 'hash' divider was of the most interest to me, as I'm trying to write a white paper and need distinctive, yet compact, format markings. (The quicker the better, as well.) Just enter 3 successive '#' (hash), '~' (tilde), '-' (minus sign), '=' (equals), '_' (underscore), or '*' (asterisk) characters and immediately press enter. The text will be replaced by a dividing line.


(This trick does something similar OpenOffice 2.4.)

Reading List by Amazon

It looks like LinkedIn has found a way to make itself relevant for day-to-day use... The Amazon Readling List provides a way for you to post what you're currently reading, want to read, or have read. You can also see the contents of other people's reading lists--in your network, in your industry, or all recent updates. Your reading list will automatically appear on your LinkedIn Home and Profile pages.

So far, I only have one book listed. I'll probably start adding to this reading list from my Safari bookshelf list, and all the various other lists that I've been compiling over the last couple of years.

You can get to my LinkedIn profile at http://www.linkedin.com/in/twilliampowell

Reading List Application full view:


On your LinkedIn Home:


On your LinkedIn Profile:


Adding from featured applications page.

99 bottles of beer and hello world programming examples

I'm a sucker for different programming languages, especially in trivial and whimsical implementations...

99 Bottles of Beer in 1200+ programming languages

Esoteric Programming Languages wiki - contains Hello World samples.

The hello world collection (420+ languages)

Hello World project

List of hello world programs on Wikibooks

Found some Gtk/Ruby signal stuff.

(For gtk2+ruby, I used the Windows installer package)

For some reason, I'm trying to learn a portable language/toolkit.

First, I had to find the correct signal to connect to.  Looks like focus_out_event is it.

currentMileage.signal_connect("focus_out_event") {
  mileagePerDay.text=((targetMileage.text.to_f  - currentMileage.text.to_f)
   /(Time.parse(targetDate.text)-Time.now)*3600*24).to_s
}

signal_connect vs signal_connect_after...  apparently, improper usage of signal_connect (for "focus_out_event") will generate the following warning which the signal occurs
Gtk-WARNING **: GtkEntry - did not receive focus-out-event

From the description, what has happened is a timeout with a now invalid pointer (because of the signal's redirect).  Using signal_connect_after() ensures that the default handler has run first.

currentMileage.signal_connect_after("focus_out_event") {
  mileagePerDay.text=((targetMileage.text.to_f  - currentMileage.text.to_f)
   /(Time.parse(targetDate.text)-Time.now)*3600*24).to_s
}

Next up:  Encapsulate some of this stuff.  In this exercise, I realized that I forgot some of the basics, like how variable scope is defined in Ruby:  http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=18225&seqNum=2.

Some additional Ruby links...
Rubyist reference
RubyDocs reference to global variables
6 Ways to Run Shell Commands in Ruby

I remember the good old days of domain squatting

At least you had to pony up a few bucks per domain name back then.  Now there's Twitter squatting.  It's fairly predictable, really...  Every single letter TwitID is taken.  Common surnames...  taken.  Common words...  taken.  Apparently, you don't even need to use a legitimate or at least legitimately unique e-mail address to do it.

Classic Blogger and PHP?

A question via e-mail:

I stumbled upon your blog: http://developernotes.thomaspowell.com
What I noticed - and it's something that I wanted also - is that your blogpages are all ending in .php, even your individual blogpost pages (http://developernotes.thomaspowell.com/2008/10/remember-milk-is-on-twitter.php)

How do you do that in settings? I can only get the index page to end as PHP. The individual posts remain in HTML.

Could you share this nugget of wisdom with me?

(Note:  I've only done this publishing to another host via FTP)

In Blogger dashboard, click the [Settings] link for your blog.

Under the [Settings] Tab -> [Publishing] Tab, edit the Blog Filename field. (index.html -> index.php)

There is also a setting for the archive file:
Under the [Settings] Tab -> [Archive] Tab, edit the Archive filename field. (archive.html -> archive.php)

One more thing to note...  all the old *.html files will still be left on the server, so if you want them removed, you'll have to clean them yourself.

(You may also want to redirect old links to the new extension).

Is a Yahoo developer platform worth the time investment to learn?

Yahoo Introduces Social Developer Platform

"3 elements":

Yahoo Social Platform, a set of REST-based social application programming interfaces (APIs) for utilizing social data related to Profiles, Connections, Updates, Contacts, and Status.

Yahoo Query Language, a new Web service API for accessing other Web services using a SQL-style query language, rather than a lower-level programming code. Yahoo describes it as "a command-line version of Pipes," Yahoo's visual programming system for mashing up and remixing Web data, like RSS feeds.

Yahoo Application Platform, a set of software and services to build applications that run on Yahoo. It includes a browser-based development environment, various APIs and Web services, a distribution and discovery infrastructure, and a runtime and rendering environment.

Yahoo Open Strategy (Y!OS) 1.0 Developer Release announcement and List of Y!OS Documentation.

Is this new hope for Yahoo, or another potential dead-end for an industry laggard?  I remember  Yahoo killing its Facebook wannabe, which, with TechCrunch keeping score, makes Yahoo 0-4 On Social Networking. Yahoo does not equal AOL, but I can't help but think of AOL's shutting down of AOL Journals, Pictures, Hometown, Bluestring, and XDrive.  Is it worth investing the time to figure out something that will potentially be on the chopping block in the future?

Remember the Milk is on Twitter!

This may be old news to many RTM/Twitter users, but it was a pleasant surprise to me today.

As I was perusing the Remember the Milk keyboard shortcuts, I noticed that at the bottom, under "Services", Twitter was listed. So I clicked on the link, and the "Services / Remember the Milk for Twitter page" came up, where I could enter my Twitter id. I was presented with a verification code for the next step.

From there, I typed "follow rtm" and then "d rtm [verification code]".

Now that all that is set up, I can interact with Twitter through direct msg:

"d rtm pick up the milk"

"d rtm call jimmy at 5pm tomorrow"

"d rtm !complete call jimmy"

All the instructions and some command examples are at: http://www.rememberthemilk.com/services/twitter/

Of course, I'm still learning how to even use the RTM Date Formats.

Added:
Of course, since I can txt updates to Twitter (40404), I can add tasks for today by texting
"d rtm pick up the milk today"

I don't need a laptop or notepad to record my "action items" anymore. This is awesome.

Added 8/23:
Thanks to @louisvilllesoup, I looked into sending tasks from e-mail to RTM inbox as well... this is a pretty robust feature set.

A much simpler setup is importing a list via e-mail, which enables adding a list in bulk to a specific list (e.g., personal) by specifying the list in the subject line and list items on individual lines in the message body. A downside to this method is that signature lines and legal disclaimers get added (per line) to your to do list. I'll need to research if there is a way around this.

Trying to dig up IT relevant podcasts

Any suggestions?

InfoWorld Podcasts: These look promising...

• Infoworld Daily - includes a general tech news segment which is repeated in the NetworkWorld 360 podcast as well.
  
• The Virtualization Report
  
• Storage Sprawl
  
• The SOA Report
  
• ...a few discontinued ones are out there, too.

Enterprise 2.0 podcasts - looks like recordings from a conference? I'll have to download and check them out tonight. Not as promising as the Infoworld ones. I see that a lone spammer has managed to post spam comments in "response" to a few of the links.

NetworkWorld podcasts: Again, some promise here.

• NetworkWorld's Twisted Pair (this sounds more like entertainment, but possibly relevant news)
• NetworkWorld Panorama
• NetworkWorld 360 - includes a general tech news segment.
  
• Voices from the IT Roadmap
• NetworkWorld's Newsmaker of the Week
• Forrester Fundamentals
• Network Downtime (entertainment)
• Converging on Microsoft
• Cisco News and Reviews
• JavaWorld's Java Technology Insider
• LinuxCast

Same old grind / a new day / gotta work / for the pay / Burma-shave

Today's xkcd comic has Twitter all Twitterpated.